WHO Director General Tedros reiterated his concern over the narrative taking hold in some countries that "because of vaccines, and because of Omicron's high transmissibility and lower severity, preventing transmission is no longer possible and no longer necessary."
On Sunday, WHO had said that Omicron is soon set to replace Delta globally as a result of its immunity evading potential.
“We have a chance to end the public health emergency this year if we do the things that we've been talking about," a WHO official has said.
"While Omicron causes less severe disease than Delta, it remains a dangerous virus, particularly for those who are unvaccinated," Tedros said during a media briefing on COVID.
The WHO Technical Advisory Group on COVID-19 Vaccine Composition (TAG-CO-VAC) said that as coronavirus evolves, the composition of current COVID-19 vaccines may need to be updated.
The strain is also known as the 'IHU' variant because it was first identified by academics at the IHU Mediterranee Infection institute in Marseille, France, reports Xinhua news agency.
The WHO official told journalists that it was possible to be infected by both influenza and COVID-19. However, since the two are separate viruses that attack the body in different ways, there is "little risk" of them combining into a new virus.
Tedros Ghebreyesus warned against "narrow nationalism and vaccine hoarding" in a new year statement, reports BBC.
The WHO noted that the rapid growth rate is likely to be a combination of both immune evasion and intrinsic increased transmissibility of the Omicron variant.
The UN-health agency had suggested that a new variant could have a major impact on the course of the pandemic, but it's still too early to say for sure.
"Globally, we have a toxic mix of low vaccine coverage, and very low testing - a recipe for breeding and amplifying variants. That's why we continue to urge countries to fully fund the ACT Accelerator, to ensure equitable access to vaccine, tests and therapeutics all over the world," Tedros said.
The development comes shortly after WHO had said that it is “not yet clear” whether the newly-detected coronavirus variant Omicron is more transmissible.
WHO’s regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, called on countries to follow science and international health regulations in order to avoid using travel restrictions.
Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, which has developed Covaxin, had submitted EOI to WHO on April 19 for the vaccine's Emergency Use Listing.
Though Covaxin has been added in the Oman approval list, however, Bharat Biotech is still awaiting its vaccine's approval from the World Health Organization (WHO), which on Tuesday sought additional data to decide on much-awaited Emergency Use Listing (EUL).
Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, which has developed Covaxin, had submitted EOI (Expression of Interest) to the WHO on April 19 for the vaccine's Emergency Use Listing (EUL).
On Sunday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on the G20 countries to help collect USD 8 billion to ensure a fair distribution of COVID-19 vaccines around the world.
Earlier on Monday, the WHO said it is expecting one additional piece of information from Bharat Biotech regarding its COVID-19 vaccine COVAXIN.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the news during his press briefing from Geneva, "following a public call for experts."
Approval of the RTS,S/AS01 vaccine, which goes by the name Mosquirix, provides a “glimmer of hope” for Africa, according to Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa.
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